Russ Thaler says good-bye to Comcast SportsNet

Russ Thaler will announce his next job in sports television early next week. For now, then, we can just look back fondly on the Comcast SportsNet days, which ended with this unique farewell on Thursday night, capped off by Brian Mitchell and Trevor Matich wheeling Thaler into the black beyond.

Thaler was one of just two original on-air personalities left at the network, which started more than 10 years ago. His departure means Chick Hernandez is the last man standing.

Thaler was also the original host of Washington Post Live, which meant I got to sit in comfy chairs next to him for 90 minutes at a time as I stumbled my way through my first few on-air appearances, all of which were horrendous. He was an extremely kind and forgiving man to sit next to.